Waking the Witch: Old Ways, New Rites (Issue: r26)

Ellen Bell assesses this visual exploration at Oriel Davies, Newtown, of the ‘witch’ through the ages, right up to feminist icon and modern-day shamanread more...

Interview with João Morais (Issue: 118)

Ann D Bjerregaard from Parthian Books interviews the Cardiff-based author João Morais about his forthcoming debut short story collection, Things that Make the Heart Beat Faster, out on 1 October read more...

Käthe Kollwitz: Portrait of the Artist (Issue: 117)

Harsher, more real, more felt, more understood than her contemporaries, Ellen Bell rediscovers the work of this artist, enjoying for the first time her understated display and allegory, and is rendered speechless by her exquisite draughtsmanshipread more...

The Moon-Eyed People and the White Ravens (Issue: 117)

Reginald Francis writes about the unexpected connections between Welsh and Native American cultures that were revealed by Peter Stevenson during an evening of music and storytelling

Aubrey and the Terrible Ladybirds (Issue: 117)

Eleanor Howe is charmed by this ripping yarn for children by Horatio Clare, at turns outrageous, hilarious, thoughtful and wiseread more...

The Dragon Has Two Tongues (Issue: 117)

On the eve on the announcement of the winner of the New Welsh Writing Awards 2018: Aberystwyth University Prize for an Essay Collection, Tony Brown celebrates Glyn Jones’ deeply humane classic, The Dragon Has Two Tongues, published this summer in a new read more...

Three Tales by Cynan Jones: Book Launch and Review (Issue: r23)

In the Goldfish Bowl (Issue: 116)

Woman of Flowers: Aberystwyth Arts Centre (Issue: 116)

Reginald Francis reflects with nuance on the actors’ performances of this version of the Welsh legend, and commends the predominantly female cast read more...

The Picket Line Blues (Issue: 116)

Striking lecturer Neal Alexander reports from the picket line at Aberystwyth University campus where members of the University and College Union (UCU) are in their second week of action to prevent proposed changes to their pensionread more...

Rewriting the Mabinogi: Matthew Francis (Issue: r19)

Like Pwyll, reports Reginald Francis from this Faber poetry book launch in Aberystwyth, these Brythonic stories from oral tradition, transformed into modern English poetry, ‘[ride] through the space between one world and another’read more...

One Hour Hamlet from Half Light Productions (Issue: 115)

Reginald Francis admired the subtlety and minimalism of this stripped-down and accessible production at Aberystwyth Arts Centreread more...

The Arthurian Place Names of Wales (Issue: 115)

Reginald Francis is inspired to seek out places associated with Arthurian legend across Wales after attending this book launch with author Scott Lloyd, part of the Arthur and Welsh Mythology exhibition at the National Library of Walesread more...

Reginald Francis goes to watch visual artists working with narrative and the British and European folk traditions in a showcase for the Welsh government's Year of Legendsread more...

Earth Core: the Hominin Project (Issue: 114)

I attended Julian Ruddock's exhibition at the Aberystwyth Arts Centre twice one week at the end of May. It was intended to showcase the power of combining science and art.read more...

Cover to Cover: The World of the Book (Issue: 113)

It is the first thing on a Monday morning and the small ground floor gallery currently housing the National Library of Wales’s (NLW) Cover to Cover exhibition is far from quiet.read more...

Association of Illustrators World Illustration Awards (Issue: 113)

On 30 May I went to look at the exhibition of the annual Association of Illustrators World Illustration Awards 2016 at the Aberystwyth Arts Centre.read more...

Revolution at Ffotogallery (Issue: 114)

The revolution will not be televised, but it was and is photographed. Diffusion, Cardiff’s International Festival of Photography, organised by Ffotogallery, takes ‘Revolution’ as its theme, 100 years on from the Russian Revolution.read more...

Hollow Log: The Coolest Man Who Ever Walked the Earth (Issue: 113)

The circular space within the performance studio was perfect for the down-home acoustic blues which amplified and resonated across the room. The blue curtain and low lights helped recreate the juke joints of the ’20s and ’30s – drinking was encouragread more...

Wales Festival of Architecture Panel (Issue: 113)

On Tuesday 9 May, I attended a panel for the festival of Architecture in Wales at 6 pm at Aberystwyth Arts Centre.read more...

The Trials of Oscar Wilde (Issue: 113)

The play produced by Mappa Mundi and shown at Aberystwyth Arts Centre on 3 May, was jointly written by John O’Connor and Oscar Wilde’s grandson, Merlin Holland.read more...

For the People: A celebration of Welsh Architecture: Photographs by James Morris (Issue: 113)

It is 9.30am and the café is quiet – no echoing squeals from little girls in pink leotards scampering in and out of the dance studios, or the humming of parents clustering around prams.read more...

Fallen Poets: Edward Thomas & Wales (Issue: 113)

I attended a recent lecture given by Dr Andrew Webb which coincided with the 100th anniversary of the death of the British poet and writer Edward Thomas on 9 April, 1917, in World War I.read more...

Stitched Voices (Issue: 113)

There is a long tradition of protest and human struggle being expressed by means of textile hangings and banners, however I am uncomfortable with the idea that there may necessarily be an artistic dimension to works of this nature.read more...

Celebrating the Hand-made: Make (Issue: 113)

A gaggle of primary school children in plum-coloured sweaters and borrowed-from-home aprons are hovering around a display case in Ruthin Craft Centre’s (RCC) main gallery, clutching clip boards.read more...

Dreaming The Night Field (Issue: 113)

The performers approached the stage and began to sing whilst they slowly arranged an assortment of tree branches, resting them upon each other in different positions.read more...

The Map and the Clock (Issue: 113)

Sitting in Aberystwyth’s Arts Centre’s Theatre Bar Café, way too early for the theatre doors to open, I think about who goes to poetry recitalsread more...

Yfory (Issue: 113)

Post Brexit, many of us have felt like letting out an angry cry of despair. Siôn Eirian has framed his despair with a proscenium arch and called it Yfory (Tomorrow). read more...

Negative Space (Issue: 113)

I attended a production of the play Negative Space at Aberystwyth Arts Centre on Tuesday 28 February.read more...

Oubliette: A performance by Ellen Bell (Issue: 113)

Is it all about sewing? Nicola Heywood Thomas had asked. She’d interviewed me for the Radio Wales Arts Show the previous week about my Oubliette performance at Oriel Davies (OD). read more...

Breaking the Spell of Loneliness (Issue: 113)

On Saturday 11 February at 8pm I attended the event ‘Breaking the Spell of Loneliness’ by George Monbiot and Ewan McLennan at the Aberystwyth Arts Centre.read more...

Fine, Fine, Fine, Fine, Fine (Issue: 113)

Fine, Fine, Fine, Fine, Fine
Rarely do books invoke a state of critical paralysis in me, but the stories in Diane Williams’ Fine, Fine, Fine, Fine, Fine have managed just that. As a consequence I offer you an uncertain and idiosyncratic response – anread more...

Goodbye, Vanity Street; Hello, Opportunity Avenue! (Issue: 113)

Goodbye, Vanity Street; Hello, Opportunity Avenue!
I'll probably never pay for a book of mine to be published. But I was tempted and I'm willing to say so. I considered paying a company to publish a story collection, having failed to convince anyone elseread more...

No Man's Land (Issue: 112)

15 December 2016, the National Theatre screened a live performance of Harold Pinter’s classic play No Man’s Land, broadcast from Wyndham’s Theatre in London’s West End. The production was directed by Sean Mathias, and starred Patrick Stewart, Ian read more...

Artes Mundi7 – Nástio Mosquito (Issue: 112)

Artes Mundi7 is one of Wales’ biggest contemporary visual arts exhibitions and the largest art prize in the UK. Nástio Mosquito is premiering The Transitory Suppository; the first chapter of a larger project, which revolves around a fictional dictator read more...

Dave Ball: Searching for the Welsh Landscape (Issue: 113)

This exhibition explores the concept of ‘Welshness’ through a personal hunt for the ‘archetypal Welsh mountain’. The questions it raises are serious, but Ball manages to avoid the sometimes fraught nature of the search for national identity by depread more...

Hay Festival – Winter Weekend (Issue: 113)

We arrived an hour early for my first event of the day, a talk by Polly Morland on her newest book Metamorphosis, so we browsed some of the many second-hand book shops that Hay is famous for before heading to the Swan Hotel.

Polaris (Issue: 112)

On 20 November 2016, the Aberystwyth Arts Centre welcomed Michael Sabbaton as part of Abertoir, Wales’ national horror festival. On stage, he performed a mesmerising monologue of H. P. Lovecraft’s dream-inspired short story of the same name, ‘Polariread more...

Voice and Verse (Issue: 112)

Voice and Verse is a bi-monthly evening of poetry and live music hosted by Rhys Milsom and Rob Cullen. The event took place at Octavo’s Book Café and Wine Bar in Cardiff Bay on 11 November at 7pm. The next evening will take place around 13 January. Exaread more...

R. S. Thomas: Too Brave to Dream (Issue: 112)

A Friends of the Glynn Vivian and Dylan Thomas Centre Joint Lecture, on the publication of R. S. Thomas’ poetry, Too Brave to Dream took place at the Dylan Thomas Centre, Swansea, on 6 November 2016.

Crossing Borders (Issue: 112)

The scheduling of ‘Crossing Borders’, – the Museum of Modern Art’s one-day conference on art and literature, accompanying its new exhibition, ‘Four painters in Raymond Williams’ Border Country’ – could hardly have been more timely.read more...

John Macfarlane’s exhibition (Issue: 112)

John Macfarlane’s latest exhibition at Martin Tinney Gallery is small but tightly focused. It centres on his recent work designing scenery and costume with the Royal Ballet, Metropolitan Opera, and Chicago Lyric Opera.read more...

New Poetry and Fiction at Chapter (Issue: 112)

Walking into Chapter Arts Centre, I was immediately hit with a wall of noise.read more...

The Cardiff Book Festival (Issue: 112)

Just four months ago a small number of us attended the launch for the first ever Cardiff Book Festival.read more...

Imaginary Worlds, Oriel Davies Gallery (Issue: 112)

Walking into Newtown’s Oriel Davies at 10.10am on a Saturday morning, I find my passage impeded by an elderly woman attempting to manoeuvre a brand-spanking-new mobility scooter.read more...

The Weir (Issue: 112)

The souls of the dead, when they are not hanging around funereal monuments and sepulchres, are haunting the souls of certain living persons, day and night.read more...

in solution (Issue: 112)

The title of David Barnes’ latest exhibition comes from Raymond Williams’ Marxism and Literature.read more...

Quentin Blake: Inside Stories (Issue: 112)

What does an illustrator think about? The question is posed as you walk into Quentin Blake: Inside Stories, currently on display at National Museum Cardiff. The answer is wonderfully revealed in the exhibition through years’ worth of Blake’s storyboarread more...

City of the Unexpected (Issue: 112)

The day began waiting for something to happen by the Prince of Wales pub. In front of us are a number of cranes. read more...

This must be the place I never wanted to leave… (Issue: 111)

Last week the Hastings-based artist Tom Banks was announced as the winner of the £1000 Beep Wales International Painting Prize 2016 with his oil on canvas ‘MetaVita II’.read more...

The Button Project, curated by Jo Dahn (Issue: 111)

A fluorescent yellow sheet of A4 paper, with the caption HOLIDAY HEROES, has been taped onto the sign advertising the Ceramics Gallery’s current show. read more...

Folk, Tuplet & A Mighty Wind (Issue: 111)

"What would life be without rhythm?” asks a sassy American voice during a scene-change in Tuplet. It is a fitting epigraph for the whole evening’s performance: a presentation of three contemporary dance pieces performed back-to-back at the theatre of read more...

Rain is a thinly veiled threat on a muggy, bank holiday Saturday in Swansea as over 20,000 people gather at the Liberty Stadium to see the Manic Street Preachers perform the entirety of their 1996 album, Everything Must Go.

Oriel Davies Open 2016: Painting (Issue: 110)

John Akomfrah’s Vertigo Sea (Issue: 110)

John Akomfrah was born in 1957 in Ghana and currently lives and works in London.read more...

Jenny Hall’s Hollow at Aberystwyth Arts Centre (Issue: 110)

Tucked away right at the end of this exhibition is a tiny cross-sectional drawing of a copper mine in Finland. The drawing is anonymous, but is dated 1826. It is slight, delicate and also rather strange. read more...

Made Anew: Stories from the Broken and Mended (Issue: 110)

I’m a mender. Make it go another day, my Nanny used to say. I darn, patch and blanket stitch. I don’t glue, preferring the slow, by-hand process of needle through cloth.read more...

The Glass Menagerie (Issue: 110)

On Saturday 12 March, I went to watch Theatr Pena’s production of ‘The Glass Menagerie’ at Aberystwyth Arts Centre. Originally premiering in Chicago in the 1940s, Tennessee Williams’ four-character play is an intense glimpse into the fractures tharead more...

Scratch Night at Aberystwyth Arts Centre (Issue: 110)

Scratch night is a great example of creative and performing arts students doing what they do best: being creative, experimental and forward-thinking.read more...

Efforts and Ideals: Prints of the First World War (Issue: 110)

In 1917, the Department of Information approached well known British artists to contribute to a portfolio of lithographic prints.read more...

Miss Hokusai (Issue: 110)

Miss Hokusai is a Japanese animation film directed by Keiichi Harra, based on the manga by Hinako Sugiura. It was screened at the Aberystwyth Arts Centre on 19 February. read more...

The Human Face (Issue: 110)

The Human Face exhibition is formed from the private collection of Chris Ingram and includes a diverse range of portraits and sculptures, each depicting a unique take on portraiture.read more...

Scattered (Issue: 110)

‘Scattered’ is a play written by Tim Baker and directed by John Young. It was staged at Chapter Arts Centre in Cardiff on 3 and 4 February, and at Theatr Clwyd on 5 and 6 February.read more...

Shadow of a Quiet Society at Aberystwyth Arts Centre (Issue: 110)

The premier of Shadow of a Quiet Society, a new dance theatre production by the Gwyn Emberton Dance Company, was performed at Aberystwyth Arts Centre on 20 January as part of a Welsh tour that recently ended.read more...

Touch Blue Touch Yellow Chapter Arts Centre (Issue: 110)

'Touch Blue Touch Yellow' had an instant, hard-hitting impact. A boy hovered near the doorway, jutting forward every so often to call 'hello face!' as people entered the theatre.read more...

House, Oriel Davies Gallery, Newtown (Issue: 109)

The last vestiges of Storm Barney are pounding the Oriel Davies Gallery. Rain is lashing at its windows and glass-fronted doors. Visitors are being blown in, pack-a-macs flapping and umbrellas dripping. read more...

Experimentica15, Chapter Arts Centre (Issue: 109)

Gabriel Dharmoo’s ‘Anthropologies Imaginaires’ certainly shook up the ear drums, but this was far from a typical Friday night soundtrack. read more...

Frizzi 2 Fulci at Aberystwyth Arts Centre (Issue: 109)

Maestro Fabio Frizzi and his six piece orchestra take one of the more obscure collaborations, the horror movie score, and offer something rarely experienced from modern Hollywood, even from the horror genre:read more...

Clare Woods: A Tree A Rock A Cloud (Issue: 109)

Clare Woods’ touring exhibition ‘A Tree A Rock A Cloud’ has been making a number of scenic pit-stops around the country.read more...

Harry Holland and NoFit State (Issue: 109)

Last month, my housemate’s cousin stayed with us. I asked her what she did and she replied that she was an aerialist and acrobat.read more...

In the summer of 1978 or 1979 I saw Patti Smith at the Apollo Theatre in Manchester. read more...

Words & Words & Words at Aberystwyth Arts Centre (Issue: 109)

Last week (7 October), Aberystwyth Arts Centre hosted the first of a series of events entitled Words & Words & Words, comprising innovative spoken word and poetry and organised by Mary Jacob.read more...

Kotatsu Anime Festival, Cardiff & Aberystwyth (Issue: 109)

Last weekend, Saturday 10 October, the Kotatsu Anime Festival came to Aberystwyth Arts Centre. Organised by Cardiff-based Eiko Ishii Meredith, Kotatsu is the only film festival of its kind in Wales.read more...

Clicking Fingers – Knowmadic Ali visits the Bay (Issue: 109)

The poem on the Millennium Centre is huge but big songs were sung behind its letters on Tuesday night. I got off the train. read more...

Abertoir Tenth Anniversary Exhibition (Issue: 109)

Vincent Price, the figurehead of twentieth-century horror, and Abertoir’s Patron Saint, is the main attraction.read more...

Iliad (Issue: 109)

Early on Saturday morning, 26 September, I journeyed to Llanelli in blazing sunshine for National Theatre Wales' highly-anticipated 'Iliad'. Many hours later I returned to Cardiff, not just deflated but acutely disappointed. read more...

Dismaland: A Kaleidoscope of Visionary Exasperation (Issue: 109)

Sunset was scheduled for 7.15pm on our weekend visit to Dismaland. Brilliant, our 7pm ticket would whisk us into Banksy’s bemusement park just in time for a dramatic backdrop! Wishful thinking. read more...

The Good Earth, Chapter Arts Centre (Issue: 109)

On arrival, first impressions were flawless: beautifully crafted pamphlets greeted each audience member taking a seat in Chapter’s Stiwdio. These introduced Motherlode’s five players and sketched a timeline of their drama, ‘The Good Earth’.read more...

150, Patagonia (Issue: 108)

A story as epic as the Welsh emigration to Patagonia requires an epic retelling, and in this, NTW has succeeded.read more...

Saturday morning and the Aberystwyth Arts Centre is teeming with little girls. Hundreds of them, their tiny squirming pigeon-breasted forms made all the more slippery in pink, turquoise and mauve Lycra, skipping, running and squealing.read more...

The foundation of this exhibition is the series of drawings entitled The Mare’s Tale produced by Clive Hicks-Jenkins in the early years of this century and shortly after the death of his father, Trevor. read more...

About the Time I Hid in Between Hills (Issue: 108)

If Wales is the hidden gem of Britain, then the Dylan Thomas Summer School is the hidden gem of academia. read more...

Tiffany Atkinson’s So Many Moving Parts (Issue: 108)

Tiffany Atkinson’s So Many Moving Parts is not the book she set out to write. That book was ‘a collection about bodies’ she says, but then admits: ‘As soon as you try to write to an agenda it doesn’t work. read more...

The Lost Notebook of Dylan Thomas (Issue: 108)

Jeff Towns recalls the most satisfying moment was hearing the gavel crash down declaring the Swansea University bid he was fronting as the winner. There were high fives in Sotheby’s last November.read more...

Neil Gaiman at Hay Festival (Issue: 108)

The mid-festival slump I experienced was thankfully short-lived. This was mostly due to the fact that I had a precious ticket to see Neil Gaiman in conversation on Friday evening.read more...

Bleeps of Sheep and a Grandfather Tree (Issue: 108)

I have to admit something, and I’m ashamed to do so, but I do believe in honesty, so here goes. I’m not sure if I ever knew Wales existed before I came here to attend the Dylan Thomas International Summer School. read more...

Hay Festival: Needs More Variety? (Issue: 108)

If Mum and I have learnt anything over the last few days, it was that we were overzealous when we booked tickets back in April.read more...

Hay Festival 2015 (Issue: 108)

Hay Festival is one of the most important cultural events of the year. Turning Hay-on-Wye into a bustling celebration of art and science, the festival brings visitors from all over the world.read more...

Is 'How the Light' Hay Festival's Edinburgh Fringe? (Issue: 108)

In recent years I’ve enjoyed taking a break from books and literature by heading downhill, away from the main Hay Festival towards the river (the border with England) and How the Light Gets In festival.read more...

To Kill a Machine (Issue: 107)

On Wednesday 6 May, I went to the opening night of To Kill a Machine at Arad Goch’s town venue in Aberystwyth. read more...

Poet Paul Farley in Aberystwyth – 29 April 2015 (Issue: 107)

Liverpudlian poet Paul Farley lives between Lancaster and London. He has, he says, never ‘felt rooted or attached to a place’ since his childhood in Liverpool, read more...

The Short Story in Wales, Welsh Academy relaunch, 25 May (Issue: 107)

Last weekend saw a day of celebration in Aberystwyth’s National Library, where writers, readers and academics came together in support of the short story in Wales. read more...

Tides, Catrin Finch's Debut Album as Composer (Issue: 107)

‘All my musical life is here,’ Catrin Finch says of Tides, her first record to be entirely made up of her own compositions.read more...

Dirty Aberystwyth (Issue: 107)

On Wednesday 18 March, Cardiff-based Dirty Protest came to Aberystwyth Arts Centre for their first ‘Dirty Aberystwyth’ show.read more...

Crouch Touch Pause Engage (Issue: 107)

‘I fucking breathe the fact I’m from Bridgen,’ spits the rugby player ‘It’s what forged me… made me what I’ve become…’ Alfie bursts onto the stage in the opening seconds to declare his defiant pride in his hometown of Bridgend.read more...

This Last Tempest, Aberystwyth Arts Centre, 17 February (Issue: 107)

This Last Tempest is a story formed in the silence that follows Shakespeare’s last play. Uninvited Guests and Fuel allow the audience to linger on the island, to see Ariel and Caliban both celebrate and struggle to adapt to Prospero’s absence. read more...

Mary Lloyd Jones in Aberystwyth (Issue: 106)

The publication of No Mod Cons coincides with the opening of two exhibitions of Mary Lloyd Jones’ work in Aberystwyth – one at the Arts Centre and one at the Old College. All three events are timed to mark the artist’s eightieth birthday. read more...

A Poet’s Year (Issue: 106)

You drive. You drive towards the night. You drive towards the darkness and the sea, and when you get there you open the car door to the sound of seagulls, and this is another country, and it’s Wales.read more...

Editor Responds to Magazines Funding Row (Issue: 106)

A Twitter storm is not best braved when your email's gone down (again) and there's no IT support because you can't afford any.read more...

Cinnamon Press Poetry Event at Aberystwyth Arts Centre (Issue: 106)

Following publication in several magazines and journals, as well as a fully fledged poetry pamphlet, Tilt is Ros Hudis’ first complete poetry collection.read more...

Another Mumblecore Masterpiece: A Wonderful Christmas Time (Issue: 106)

Hot on the successful heels of Benny and Jolene, which debuted earlier this year, Welsh-born writer and director Jamie Adams has produced a second mumblecore masterpiece – and just in time for Christmas!

Judge announces New Welsh Writing Awards longlist (Issue: 106)

The process of choosing the longlist for the New Welsh Writing Awards has been unexpectedly delightful.read more...

Bob Dylan and the Bells of Rhymney (Issue: 105)

This month has seen the release of The Basement Tapes Complete, which is volume eleven and the latest instalment of the Bob Dylan Bootleg Series.read more...

Dance performance Caitlin in Swansea (Issue: 105)

We sit in a circle of chairs set up for an AA meeting. Caitlin (Eddie Ladd) opens the meeting with ‘My name is Caitlin and I am an alcoholic’. read more...

Bedazzled: A Welshman in New York (Issue: 105)

You know when it gets to a few days before Christmas and you’ve heard ‘Fairytale of New York’ 864 times in the last 23 days and all you want to do in life is smash the rest of Shane MacGowan’s rotten teeth in? read more...

James Dickson Innes at MOMA, Y Tabernacl, Machynlleth, until 8 November (Issue: 105)

If you missed The National Museum’s comprehensive Landscapes by JD Innes, Beauty Most Wild earlier this year then you are in luck! read more...

Tucked in the Aberystwyth Arts Centre’s bar and lounge upstairs is a fairly small space some readers may recognize as the Talks and Spoken Word Performance Theatre (or to theatre buffs, the Round Studio). read more...

For the Birds, RSPB Ynys-hir Reserve 2–5 October 2014 (Issue: 105)

Rolling down the car window I ask for Rosie. Which one? replies the parking-attendant at Ynys-hir’s RSPB Reserve before directing me towards a marquee at the end of the field.read more...

Pilgrims in Crow Country (Issue: 104)

Having recently finished Mark Cocker's Crow Country: now I know the ancestral importance of rookeries & how rooks & jackdaws don't mind sharing nest-space; also the beauty of Norfolk's flat landscape (though I need some more persuading on that point). read more...

Wonderfulgood: A Look at Variety in the Dublin Performance Scene (Issue: 104)

Dylan Ha Ha Ha: Dylan Thomas at the National Library (Issue: 104)

Amy McCauley, immune to ‘Dylanmania’, visits the major touring ‘Dylan’ show at the National Library of Wales in Aberystwyth and is reminded, in ‘this most playful of exhibitions’ of a ‘damned funny’ poet with a ‘pathologically quick imagread more...

Gregory Peck, Evel Knievel and the Chartists: on My Family and Other Superheroes (Issue: 104)

Cardiff International Poetry Competition nominee Jonathan Edwards describes the process of combining history, ancestors and popular culture in his debut collection for Seren, My Family and Other Superheroesread more...

Seren Publisher Takes Up European Schwob Fellowship (Issue: 104)

Mametz, National Theatre Wales until 5 July (Issue: 104)

Brian Roper reviews National Theatre Wales' production 'Mametz', inspired by Owen Sheers' poem 'Mametz Wood' and the work of war poets including David Jones, Siegried Sasson, Llewelyn Wyn Griffith and Sheers' great-great uncle, William Gwyn Davies.read more...

Little Arrow – Wild Wishes (Issue: 101)

Good at Self-Deprecation? Not Really. Aime Williams at London Welsh Litfest (Issue: 101)

Aime Williams covers the Wales, Bloomsbury & Beyond day at the London Welsh Centre's Litfest, and muses on self-deprecation, Pinocchio and rapping about tea.read more...

PD @ C2 (Issue: 101)

Dan Anthony's personal view of Pembroke Dock as the town gears up for its two-hundredth celebrations.read more...

A Donkey-load of Silver (Issue: 101)

NWR editor Gwen Davies reads Owain Hughes' memoir of life on the Dwyryd estuary and asks whether this may signal a trend for privileged and deracinated north-Wales memoirs by children of artistic parentageread more...

Dandelion by Patrick Jones (Issue: 101)

Rob Mimpriss considers controversy and vilification in his review of Patrick Jones’ play Dandelionread more...

Editor's Cultured Week (Issue: 101)

Wales Book of the Year Ceremony (Issue: 100)

NWR editor at Wales Book of the Year, Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama, 18 July 2013read more...

Two Events with Rhian Edwards (Issue: 100)

Upcoming events with poet Rhian Edwards, Book of the Year contenderread more...

Digital Content for Businesses at the National Library (Issue: 100)

The National Library of Wales, in a £2.3 million ERDF- & Welsh Government-funded project, is making millions of images and texts available to businesses free of charge; Gwen Davies attends the Digido/Digital Content for Business event at the Library.read more...

Resist the Pie-Chart. Funding for English Periodicals in Wales (Issue: 100)

The ‘kitchen table’ scenario whereby our only cultural output in terms of literary magazines is relegated to the extra-curricular activity of a pocket of enthusiasts, should only appeal to a small demographic and it absolutely must not be allowedread more...

Keeping Up with the Joneses, NWR at Hay Festival 28 May 2013 (Issue: 100)

Dispatch from Slovenia Three, I Am Not an Elf (Issue: 99)

Bradley Manning, Baader-Meinhof & Legs Akimbo (Issue: 99)

NWR editor looks at political theatre & fiction in the digital and analogue eras, and offers insight into the creative decisions, as well as serendipity, underpinning magazine commissioning.read more...

Dispatch from Slovenia 2, Dogs and Toddlers (Issue: 99)

Christopher Meredith spent the second part of his two-centre residency at Goga publishers in Novo Mesto, Slovenia; here is the second of three dispatchesread more...

Dispatch from Slovenia 1, A Bend in the River (Issue: 99)

Christopher Meredith spent the second part of his two-centre residency at Goga publishers in Novo Mesto, Slovenia; here is the first of three dispatches.read more...

Forests, Rocks, Lakes (Issue: 98)

In the last of seven dispatches, novelist and poet Christopher Meredith reports from this autumn’s residency at Jyväskylä Writers’ House, Finland.read more...

Stopping to Drink, Stopping Drinking (Issue: 98)

In the sixth of seven dispatches, novelist and poet Christopher Meredith reports from this autumn’s residency at Jyväskylä Writers’ House, Finland. read more...

Pictures, Tongues, Cities (Issue: 98)

In the fifth of seven dispatches, novelist and poet Christopher Meredith reports from this autumn’s residency at Jyväskylä Writers’ House, Finland.read more...

How to Pronounce Jyväskylä (Issue: 98)

In the fourth of seven dispatches, novelist and poet Christopher Meredith reports from this autumn’s residency at Jyväskylä Writers’ House, Finland. A lesson from the master, on Finnish pronunciation and eating very very large pizzas.read more...

Finns are Very Polite People (Issue: 98)

In the third of seven dispatches, novelist and poet Christopher Meredith reports from this autumn’s residency at Jyväskylä Writers’ House, Finland.read more...

Aaltitude (Issue: 98)

The second of seven dispatches, novelist and poet Christopher Meredith reports from this autumn’s residency at Jyväskylä Writers’ House, Finland.read more...

Waterland (Issue: 98)

In the first of seven dispatches, novelist and poet Christopher Meredith reports from his residency this autumn at Jyväskylä Writers’ House, Finland.read more...

A Reader’s Christmas Holiday, Best Served Melancholy (Issue: 98)

Nia Davies celebrates the melancholy side of Christmas, in poetry and children's favouritesread more...

Support our publishing industry: buy one literary mag or book produced in Wales this Christmas (Issue: 98)

Julian Ruck on the Politics Show this weekend made the vague and inaccurate statement that there is no public scrutiny of the subsidy made to publish new editions of classic titles of Welsh writing in English in the Library of Wales imprint. read more...

Ruckus in Welsh Subsidised Publishing (Issue: 98)

Public Funding of the Arts in Wales featured on Sunday Politics Show, 2 December.read more...

Rugby Gods and a Cocktail of Bird, Blood, Snow (Issue: 97)

Lloyd Jones and Cynan Jones launch their contributions to Seren's Mabinogion series, See How They Run and Bird, Blood, Snowread more...

Quick checklist of favourites from 26 Treasures (Issue: 96)

Sherman Cymru: The First Six Months (Issue: 96)

Sherman Cymru opens onto the student-dominated Senghennydd Road in Cardiff by way of a huge crescent window...read more...

The Last Hundred Years is Not an Historical Novel (Issue: 96)

Booker nominee Patrick McGuinness argues that his Ceausescu era-set novel The Last Hundred Years is not an historical novel, nor should creative writing students worry too much about research, nor indeed about their readers.read more...

Good Vibrations (Issue: 95)

The Archbishop, Arts for Teens and Crashing Cars (12/04/2012)

Literary tourism programme launched by archbishop; Young People's Laureate takes teenagers around her former convent school, Tredegar House; young people from four to eighteen treated to star performances at Arad Goch's Opening Doors performance festivaread more...

Far South for Sales (Issue: 95)

Avoid marketing hooks for centenaries such as Scott of the Antarctic's but don't miss the pearls in the snow such as Samantha Wynne-Rhydderch's Banjoread more...

Rhys Davies Short Story Competition (29/02/2012)

Rhys Davies Short Story Competition and University of Glamorgan Author Interview Filmsread more...

26 Treasures (20/02/2012)

26 letters in the alphabet. 4 countries (currently) in the UK. 26 Treasures: The Book, a pan-national poetry anthology, has 10 days to get 151 supportersread more...

Chris Meredith’s new masterpiece The Book of Idiots (13/02/2012)

Christopher Meredith's last novel for adults was published in 1998, so his fanclub's been a long time waiting.read more...

Dorothy Edwards, aesthete or ‘socialist Welsh spy’? (06/02/2012)

This politically engaged author was brought up to expect imminent revolution by a mother who was a pit-head baths campaigner and a father who camped nude 'in order to establish the degree of materialism necessary for human survival.' read more...

For an event last week at Swansea's Dylan Thomas Centre, I was in conversation with Cardiff authors Tessa Hadley and Deborah Kay Davies (the latter via virtual interview, available in full here shortly).read more...

Halloween Poetry (31/10/2011)

The leaves are starting to fly from the trees in the park across the street, settling in pools of red and brown on the grass, and, for some reason, this makes me want to start reading poetry out loud...read more...

In 'Berlin Sensation: Second “Wild Boy” Found!', Rory MacLean's 6 October post on his Goethe Institut-hosted Meet the Germans blog, the Canadian travel writer traces a recent spate of Berlin 'wild boy' discoveries, one lost in the forest, the secread more...

Catherine Fisher our new Young People's Laureate and other matters (18/10/2011)

Smithy, Super Thursday and the Evergreen Book as Gift. (10/10/2011)

Gavin and Stacey's Smithy did shove up a Severn Bridge toll barrier to 'break into Wales'. But when all's said and done, he is no champion of Wales.read more...

New Critics Day and Seren at Thirty (03/10/2011)

Admin is the bane of our lives, whether we are teachers, nurses or literary magazine editors.read more...

Preview of Fflur Dafydd's The White Trail (26/09/2011)

Fflur Dafydd writes in the current issue of New Welsh Review about the genesis of her second English novel, The White Trail,] published on 18 October.read more...

Academic Novelists are International Wall Breakers (12/09/2011)

Unfortunately Caernarfon-based Patrick McGuinness' Bucharest-set novel The Last Hundred Days didn't make the cut at last week's Man Booker Prize shortlisting...read more...

The Realities of Profit (12/09/2011)

One blessing of the recession is that the Co-op won't start draping tinsel round its Back to School alcove just as soon as those daps sell out. At New Welsh Review, however, September is the new December, since I've just edited all twenty-two pread more...

Coming of Age For All Ages, Teenage Fiction Recommendations (03/09/2011)

My son turned fourteen last month. Despite nights lost to computer games, he does still read...read more...

Goodness Gracious Me: Wake up to Wales, Radio Four! (02/09/2011)

Following his recent piece slamming Bred of Heaven, reviewer Roger Lewis is a dead cert for the Tacsi gong...read more...

Seals, Saints and Bardsey as an Urban Centre (04/08/2011)

Book of the Year Winner Proves Illusion will Nourish, even if it won't feed us (18/07/2011)

'Don Quixote,' John Harrison says in his Book of the Year winner Cloud Road, A Journey Through the Inca Heartland is usually portrayed as an old man who... leaves his home and steps into the world of his delusions.... I discovered in the first read more...

The Kindle Single and Masters of Ecstasy (13/07/2011)

'The Great Master of Ecstasy' was the story that 'sent' me most out of those in Glenda Beagan's book of the same title. 'Muscles Came Easy' is easily the best from Aled Islwyn's collection Out With It...read more...

Forget the Heels (11/07/2011)

'Those shoes will send you straight to hell!' Gee told me on Charlotte Square, Edinburgh. Four-inch heels and straps coiling up the leg like a pair of pervy pythons...read more...

Death and the Bread Van (27/06/2011)

Biographers, dealing as they are with lives passing, face time and death head on. Michael Holroyd, author of Augustus John's life, among others, told his Hay audience that his privilege was to write a new book for a dead author. read more...

Profile of YA Author Ruta Sepetys (23/06/2011)

One night a few weeks ago I began to read Between Shades of Gray...read more...

Prince Philip, Royal Rings and Sharing the Spoils (20/06/2011)

Fiona Bruce caused a minor stir in our household the other night...read more...

NWR Summer Books Choice (26/05/2011)

Getting ready for Hay next week has meant getting to know the delightful Horatio Clare, who I'll be interviewing on Monday together with Richard Gwyn, both memoirists recalling misspent youths at home and abroad...read more...

Literature Wales Writers' Bursaries (07/04/2011)

Glad to see that bursaries for authors will continue to feature as part of the brand new Literature Wales (formerly Academi) remit...read more...

Roland Mathias Prize 2011 (07/04/2011)

Bleary-eyed from a drive back from Brecon after attending the Roland Mathias award, which has just been made to poet Ruth Bidgood for Time Being (Seren)...read more...

West Papua (05/04/2011)

Outside a West London pub, Serogo repeated my name. I've been asked about it many times before but I've never got this reaction: “Ah Wales - freedom fighters!”read more...

Peter Finch to Leave Academi (04/04/2011)

Peter Finch today announced that he will be leaving Academi literature agency exactly one month hence...read more...

New Look NWR: New Opportunities for Writers (31/03/2011)

Just had the proofs back from designer Rebecca from Mo Publications. Have gone for a new image to launch a new editorial approach...read more...

Wuthering Heights on Stage (20/03/2011)

Aberystwyth Arts Centre's production company this week kickstarted their series of medium-scale literary adaptations to stage with Lucy Gough's Wuthering Heights...read more...

NWR-featured Author makes Times £30,000 Prize Longlist (10/03/2011)

Roshi Fernando is a fantastic up-and-coming author who will be showcased in my first, May, issue of New Welsh Review with an extract from her novel in progress, The Elephant's Wife...read more...

Fuzzy Logic and Inside Out (08/03/2011)

Fantastic lineup headlining Howard Marks planned for an Academi Life Writing day in May...read more...

Richard Ayoade on Submarine (04/03/2011)

Here's a good youtube clip of Richard Ayoade at the Toronto Film Festival...read more...

HEFCW withdraws funding from University of Wales Press (10/12/2010)

Waleshome.org (06/12/2010)

I meant to flag up this great site to readers who might not be aware of it some time ago...read more...

Dylan Thomas Prize Winner Announced (02/12/2010)

Congratulations to poet Elyse Fenton who takes the 2010 Dylan Thomas Prize, a cheque for £30,000 and the all-important profile that the win brings...read more...

Small is Beautiful (30/11/2010)

I thought I'd highlight a recently published book from Cinnamon that looks hugely promising: Exposure...read more...

Picador Poetry Prize Shortlist (29/11/2010)

A little belatedly, for the editor has been in transit, but congratulations to all those shortlisted for this wonderful initiative - the Picador Poetry Prize for an unpublished (at least, unpublished as a first collection) poet...read more...

T.S. Elliot Prize goes to Phillip Gross (19/01/2010)

Synecdoche, Adamsdown (12/01/2010)

As everyone with a good dictionary knows, a 'synecdoche' is a literary term where the part stands for the whole and vice versa.read more...

Whose Voice is it Anyway? (10/12/2009)

Over the past few blogs, I've been thinking about the different elements I've had to consider as I write my biography of the woman who was briefly married to a 'Screen Giant of Electric Intensity'read more...

To Reveal or Not to Reveal? (07/12/2009)

These days it seems like any old celebrity can get a book deal to write their autobiography...read more...

What Lies Beneath (07/12/2009)

'Researching, like writing, is an individual, creative process.' So says Ann Hoffman, author of Research for Writers, one of the best books on the process. read more...

Cataloguing Lives (30/11/2009)

When you're famous and then you die, you could find yourself in the potentially awkward and deeply invasive position...read more...

Significant Others (30/11/2009)

There is a distinguished list of 'significant others' in cultural history...read more...

KEEP IN TOUCH

KEEP IN TOUCH

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